A TIT for tat spat has broken out between Romsey's Liberal Democrat MP and the Conservative candidate who will challenge her at the next general election.

This has come about after would-be Tory MP Caroline Nokes accused sitting MP, Sandra Gidley, of launching personal attacks on her. Borough cabinet member, Mrs Nokes has now urged Mrs Gidley to stick to defending Lib Dem policies and look after her constituents instead of making personal remarks.

Mrs Nokes has written an open letter to the town's Lib Dem MP asking her to stop personal attacks and get on with the job she was elected to do. She said: "I have never attacked Sandra personally. To be frank I thought Sandra was above the sort of behaviour she has been indulging in. I did think that the Liberal Democrats tried to portray themselves as the 'nice' people in politics."

Mrs Nokes comments came after remarks were made about her on Mrs Gidley's newly-established online diary - romseyredhead.blogspot.com website and a 'tongue in cheek' piece comparing each others work in the latest edition of the Liberal Democrat newspaper - Hampshire Extra.

In a letter to Mrs Gidley, Mrs Nokes says: "I would like to suggest that you might like to stick to the policies at the heart of the political debate in Romsey, rather than resort to gutter tactics, which demean you personally and the office you hold."

Mrs Nokes told The Romsey Advertiser: "Elections are a very important part of the democratic process and I would have thought Mrs Gidley would have welcomed the fact that this time she had a local opponent, a woman and one who had not stooped so low as to attack her personally.

"But it seems not, she has devoted a page of her latest newspaper to criticising me personally and even has a website that is just plain pernicious.

"This sort of petty and personal sniping is demeaning to the office of MP and I am surprised that Romsey's MP thinks she needs to behave like it."

In response to Mrs Nokes remarks, Mrs Gidley said: "We have a total case of hypocrisy here. Caroline has her own blog site and over the last few months and has herself launched snide comments about me. It's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. She has had numerous little digs about me."

"I would challenge her to say why her own blog site has suddenly disappeared. Access to her web blog has now been denied. I have corrected some of the false information she made about the Liberal Democrats. My track record will stand me in good stead at the next election," added Mrs Gidley.

Mrs Nokes said she removed her blog site to stop Mrs Gidley making what she described as "malicious" remarks about her.

"Mrs Gidley is the hypocrite - not me," concluded Mrs Nokes.